Editorial: Prop. 30 peanuts for Cal State

2013-01-28 16:27:19

Remember how Gov. Jerry Brown campaigned last fall on many California college and university campuses for Proposition 30? College officials cooperated, promising no tuition increases if voters passed the initiative, which increased taxes by $6 billion a year.

Speaking at Cal State Chico a week before the Nov. 6 election, Gov. Brown said of Prop. 30, "You vote money into this school, and the schools across California, or you vote money out. You want fewer classes? Vote No. You want few teachers; you want higher tuition? Then you vote No. If you want to stop all that, then you vote Yes."

Well, students just got an expensive education in how politics really works. Cal State officials were seeking $372 million of that $6 billion. Instead, they'll get just $150 million. At least the officials are keeping their word and not hiking tuition – this year, anyway.

But the $150 million comes to $351 for each of the school's 427,000 students. According to the Cal State Fullerton website, the "Cost of Attendance" for a full-time undergraduate student who is a California resident and living in a dorm for the 2012-13 year is $24,742. So that student's $351 share will offset just 1.4 percent of the cost.

The $150 million for CSU is just 2.5 percent of the total revenue expected from Prop. 30. Yet 100 percent of the yearly total – $6 billion – will be taken from the private economy that creates the jobs the students will be seeking. And that's assuming the higher-income people hit with the new 13.3 percent top state income tax rate – highest in the nation – remain in California.

So far, only anecdotal stories indicate that at least some wealthy people are leaving, or thinking about it. Perhaps the best-known is golfer Phil Mickelson of San Diego, who last year earned almost $48 million. He let it slip that he might leave California for Florida, then almost immediately backtracked in the face of criticism.

If Mr. Mickelson did pull up stakes for the Sunshine State, he would join fellow golfing great and Orange County native Tiger Woods, who left in 1996, specifically, to enjoy Florida's zero state income tax. In the next few months the state may learn how many more wealthy Californians have left, taking with them their businesses and jobs for college students and graduates.